Muslim communities are growing rapidly in Norway

A Muslim who praysA Muslim who prays.Photo: pixabay.com

Membership in Muslim communities in this country has increased by 33 percent since 2012. Today, 148,000 Muslims in Norway are registered as members of the Islamic faith.

By comparison, the population in Norway increased by 4.5 per cent since 2012.
Since last year, the number of members of Muslim communities increased by 5.1 percent – 7,200 people.
The Islamic religious community thus represents the second largest religion in Norway, measured in the number of registered members and this group represents 2.8 percent of the population, according to figures Statistics Norway (SSB) presented on Friday.
There are only 770 registered members of Jewish communities in Norway today according to SSB figures, but there are still 37 more than last year.
All in all, on the 1st January 2016, 622,000 Norwegians belonged to religious or belief communities outside the Norwegian Church (DNK), which represents 12 percent of the population.
Growth since last year is a whopping 63,000 people, more than 11 percent. The population over the past year has only increased by 0.9 percent.
Among the churches that are growing, the Roman Catholic Church in Norway is in a unique position, and they now have more members than before the membership scandal.
Since last year there have been 49,000 more members in Catholic churches, an increase of 51 percent. In 2014 the Roman Catholic Church in Norway had 140,100 members.
This was reduced to 95 700 last year, but this year they are back with 144,900 members, according to Statistics Norway figures.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today